GLD is up 14% YTD as of May 31st, physical (from Kitco spot) is up 14%, and $GOLD is up 16%. Why the difference?
GLD is the SPDR Gold Shares ETF from State Street Global Advisors which is a convenient trading vehicle, and as of April 2016, was the largest physically backed ETF, with $32 billion in assets (the 2nd largest being the iShares Gold Trust, IAU).
The investment objective of the ETF Trust is for SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) to reflect the performance of the price of gold bullion, less the Trust's expenses (with Gross Expense Ratio of 0.40%).
The $GOLD index is Stockcharts' commodity index symbol that corresponds to a theoretical, non-tradable “continuous” contract for gold that uses a weighted average of all the currently open gold contracts.
( as stated at this page )
Implicit in this is that some of the contracts in $GOLD have done better than spot. Gold futures for August 2016 are at 1,276.30, for April 2017 at 1,288.30, and for December 2018 at 1,303.00. Spot gold ended the week at USD 1,273.30 an ounce.
Dr. Tom Fischer, professor of financial mathematics at the University of Wuerzburg, Germany, argued in an essay dated November 24, 2013 that "the fact that gold has been in contango for essentially all of the last 25 years strongly suggests central bank interference with the gold market."
The largest silver ETF is the iShares Silver Trust SLV. |
